The Result
Senators - 6 runs to 3

The Curve - Year-to-Date
62 won and 46 lost

Brett's Position and the Batting Order
Playing - Leftfield
Batting - #3

At the end of the Game
1 hit from 4 at-bats - double, 1 x run scored, 1 x grounded-into-a-double-play

Brett's at-bats
First at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
Ball - outside
Ball - low
"That ball is hit pretty well into rightfield!!! ...... the fielder makes a diving attempt but the ball gets away from him and is knocked into foul territory and Brett is cruising into second base with a double"
Double to rightfield
Advanced to third base on a wild pitch
Scored on a hit
Second at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
Ball - inside
Ball - downstairs
"Roneberg has given this a long drive!!! ...... it is out in deep centrefield!!! ...... and the fielder has been turned around---but he makes an outstanding catch up against the wall!!! ...... Brett hit that ball four-hundred feet!!! ...... it would not have been a home run in that part of the field, but he was robbed of extra bases by a phenomenal catch from the Senators' centrefielder!!!"
Fly out to centrefield - F8
Third at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Led off the innings
Ball - inside
Ball - inside
Foul ball - "that ball is crushed into rightfield!!! ...... Brett hit that deep but foul down the line"
Called strike - change up
Foul ball
"There's a fly ball into rightfield and the fielder is under it and makes the catch for the first out of the innings"
Fly out to rightfield - F9
Fourth at-bat
Top of the eighth inning!!!
The Curve are trailing by five runs to three!!!
Runners at first and second base!!!
One down!!!
Lefthanded pitcher
Ball - outside
Called strike
Ball - low
Foul ball - "that was off the end of the bat and rolls on the third base side ...... and Brett broke his bat there and needs a new piece of wood ...... he has been using the red toned bats, but now has a natural bat with a black barrel"
"There's a roller back to the mound ...... the pitcher throws awkwardly to second base but the shortstop is able to dig it out and throw on to first base to complete the inning ending double play"
Ground out to the pitcher and into a double play - 1 to 6 to 3

Heard during the Game

(#01) As Brett came in for his first at-bat, the commentator mentioned - "And now Brett Roneberg steps to the plate ...... over his last thirteen games, Brett has batted 18-for-43 which is 0.419 ...... and in that time he has raised his season average to 0.295 ...... and he has driven in eleven runs in his last five games for a total of fifty-nine for the season"
And following his double, the commentator continued - "Brett has really been hitting the ball very well lately"

(#02) During Brett's third at-bat, the commentator discussed Brett's career, including:-
His performance so far this season - "he has done everything the Pirates have asked of him, and he would have a job next year wherever he wanted it ...... and hopefully he would be given a chance at "AAA" ...... and then the Major Leagues at some point"
Last season and injury - "Brett has been a very important part of the Curve this year ...... and it is even more impressive if you remember that he missed all of the 2005 season because of shoulder surgery ...... and then he missed the first eighteen games this season due to a back injury during Spring Training"
Playing for Australia - "Brett is a member of Australia's National Team ...... he participated in the Sydney Olympics and then won the Silver Medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004 ...... and he would be looking forward to Bejing in a couple of years time"

Email from Brett

About my second at-bat
I couldn't have hit that ball any harder!!
That was everything I had!!
Soft baseballs!!
It never ever goes out to centrefield here - I have to go down the lines like everyone else did!!

Game Reports

After belting five home runs in Wednesday night’s win, the Harrisburg Senators used two third-inning homers on Thursday to come back from an early deficit and beat the Altoona Curve 6-3 at Commerce Bank Park

The Curve jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after an RBI double by Simon Pond in the first inning and a solo home run by Javier Guzman in the second, but fell victim to the long ball for the second night in a row against Harrisburg

The Senators took the lead for good in the third inning with home runs off of Curve starter Ron Chiavacci by Greg Thissen and Prentice Redman
Both homers drove in two runs, and were the sixth and seventh homeruns hit by the Senators in the last two games

Chiavacci (1-3) was handed the loss, allowing five earned runs off of seven hits in four innings of work

He was replaced by new acquisition Brian Rogers, who allowed one hit in two shutout innings of work in his debut for the Altoona Curve

The two teams would trade runs in the fourth inning before Harrisburg added a final insurance run in the bottom of the eighth

All Star pitcher Kip Bouknight (6-8) was solid for the Senators
The right-hander tossed seven innings, surrendering two earned runs off of five hits and fanned five Curve batters

Dan Kolb earned his fourth save of the season, pitching the ninth inning for Harrisburg

Altoona completes the road trip losing four of its six games and will return home to Blair County Ballpark on Friday night where it will play twenty-one of its final thirty-one contests

The Curve will host the New Britain Rock Cats on Friday at 7.05pm
The Curve will send Wardell Starling (3-2, 3.01) to the mound against the Rock Cats’ Errol Simonitsch (7-11, 3.91)

Greg Thissen and Prentice Redman blasted two-run homers in the third inning, leading Harrisburg past visiting Altoona, 6-3, on Thursday

With the Senators trailing, 2-0, in the third, Kip Bouknight laced a one-out single to right off Ron Chiavacci (1-3)
After Dan Dement lined out to second, Thissen, who had two hits, slugged his second homer over the left-field wall
Kory Casto followed with a double and Redman smacked his ninth homer

It was the Senators' seventh roundtripper in two games

Bouknight (6-8) surrendered three runs - two earned - on five hits while fanning five over seven innings

Dan Kolb tossed a scoreless ninth to collect his fourth save

The Senators (54-57) have won two straight after dropping nine in a row

Chiavacci was charged with five runs on seven hits and a walk, striking out five over four innings

Javier Guzman blasted a solo homer and Simon Pond smacked an RBI double for Altoona (62-46), which has dropped two straight

Two bad pitches by Kip Bouknight kick-started Altoona's offense in last night's Eastern League showdown at Commerce Bank Park
So the Harrisburg right-hander took it upon himself to do the same for the Senators' offense

Bouknight fired seven strong innings and went 2-for-3 with the bat, including a rally-igniting single in the third as the Senators edged the Curve 6-3 in front of 3,209 fans

The team's second straight victory earned the Senators (54-57) a 2-1 series win over second-place Altoona (62-46), which still holds a 9-1/2-game edge on Harrisburg in the South Division standings

"Bouknight was the reason we won tonight" Senators manager John Stearns said
"If everybody on the team competed like Kip Bouknight, we'd win a lot of games
He just battles and battles and battles"

It wasn't a rosy beginning for the South Carolina native, who surrendered back-to-back two-out doubles to Brett Roneberg and Simon Pond in the first and a solo home run to Javier Guzman in the second

While Harrisburg fell into a 2-0 hole, former Senators right-hander Ron Chiavacci cruised through the first couple of innings
He retired seven of the first eight batters he faced, including four on strikes

But with one out in the third, Bouknight laced a single to right field
Generally considered a decent-hitting pitcher, Bouknight was 0-for-his-last-14 at the plate and carried a .067 average into this contest

"As a pitcher you don't want to be a sure out" he said
"This year I hadn't been doing a great job of that"

Two batters later, journeyman Greg Thissen tied the score with a two-run homer to left
Kory Casto followed with a double before Prentice Redman answered Thissen's challenge with another two-run bomb

"It's just tough to be yourself every day" said Thissen, who made stops at Class A Potomac and Class AAA New Orleans before joining the Senators in mid-July
"You just want to help the team out when you get a chance, and today I got up there, got a fastball where I wanted it and did something with it"

Back-to-back one-out singles by Seth Bynum and Bouknight in the fourth preceded an RBI fielder's choice by Dan DeMent as the Senators built a 5-2 lead

From there, Bouknight cruised
He'd allowed an unearned run in the fourth after Harrisburg's tenth and eleventh errors of the three-game series, but then he retired ten straight batters through the seventh

Stearns elected to pull Bouknight after David Parrish greeted him with a leadoff single in the eighth
Left-handed reliever Jeremy Plexico fought off that challenge, and closer Dan Kolb worked the ninth for his fourth save and first since July 18

Rich Lane smoked an RBI triple in the eighth to provide the Senators' staff an insurance run

"To beat Altoona twice in a row from where we were at is a nice rebound" Stearns said, referring to the nine-game losing streak that preceded this little two-game spurt
"We need to be respectable in August
We don't want all the work we did earlier this year to go down the drain"

Notes
Bouknight, who matched his season-high with seven innings pitched, hasn't walked a batter in two straight starts
Thissen (2-for-4) ended a seven-game hitless streak
Lane (1-for-1), who entered during a double-switch in the eighth, ended a six-game slide
IF Melvin Dorta, who missed the last two games after injuring his hamstring Tuesday, said he'll be ready to go today

Home runs continued to be the Curve’s undoing on Thursday night

Altoona surrendered a pair of two-run blasts in the decisive third inning and dropped its series finale against Harrisburg, 6-3, at Commerce Bank Park

The Curve have allowed seven homers in losing two straight games against a Senators team that had dropped its previous nine

Harrisburg trailed, 2-0, entering the third but quickly reclaimed the lead by hanging a four-spot on the Curve
Altoona starter Ron Chiavacci allowed his first hit of the game when his Senators counterpart, Kip Bouknight, punched a soft liner out into right field with one out
Chiavacci then recorded the second out but unraveled after that, surrendering four straight hits
The first of those was a towering home run by Greg Thissen that tied the game
Kory Casto then doubled to left field, and Prentice Redman followed with a no-doubt shot over the left field wall to give Harrisburg the lead for good

Ray Sadler doubled in the fourth inning and scored on a fielding error to make it a one-run game, but the Curve would get no closer than that

The Senators pulled away with a run in the bottom half of the frame and another in the eighth

Altoona began the game brightly, taking a first-inning lead on Simon Pond’s RBI double

Javier Guzman made it 2-0 when he belted the first pitch he saw in the game over the right field wall
Guzman has batted .337 (32-for-95) in his last twenty-seven games to raise his average to .270

Chiavacci (1-3) lasted just four innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and a walk
The right-hander struck out five

Bouknight (6-8) allowed three runs - two of them earned - on five hits in seven innings
The right-hander walked none and struck out five

Dan Kolb picked up his fourth save with a scoreless ninth inning

Correction
The Curve remain a perfect 55-0 when leading entering a game’s final scheduled inning
The information was incorrectly stated in Thursday’s Mirror

One day after snapping their nine-game losing streak, the Senators made it two straight over the Altoona Curve with a 6-3 win

Kip Bouknight was outstanding on Thursday night, going seven innings and earning his sixth win of the season

Trailing 2-0 into the third inning, Bouknight singled with one out
With two outs, Greg Thissen hit his second two-run home run of the season to tie the game at 2-2
Kory Casto followed with a double and then Prentice Redman untied it with his second two-run home run in as many days

The two teams traded runs in the fourth inning and then Bouknight took over
He retired sixteen of nineteen before a single to start the eighth inning ended his evening
He scattered five hits and struck out four without walking a batter

The Senators scored an insurance run in the eighth inning when Rich Lane tripled in Salomon Manriquez to make the score 6-3

Casto, Redman, and Bouknight all had two hits for the Senators

Jeremy Plexico pitched a scoreless inning in relief and Dan Kolb got the final three outs for his fourth save of the season

On Friday night the Reading Phillies and Senators start a three-game series at Commerce Bank Park
The Philles swept the Senators in a four-game series directly following the All Star break